In April, I’ll be posting 26 blogs, one for every letter of the alphabet. I write historical romance set in Regency England, and I’m offering a lexicon of words to help you understand the story world of my Regency characters.

B is for Bluestocking:

Portraits in the Characters of the Muses in the Temple of Apollo – left to right, Elizabeth Carter, Anna Letitia Barbauld, Angelica Kauffmann (seated), Elizabeth Ann Linley

A Bluestocking was an educated, intellectual woman. The Blue SItockings Society dates to the earlier Georgian period, but the term carried over into the Regency period and beyond.  It was not a compliment! See my March 8th post for more on this subject.

B is for Bath Chairs:

Bath chair in the Roman Baths museum store: St John’s Museum Store, Upper Bristol Road, Bath.

The first time I saw this term in a story, it was a real head-scratcher.  A bath chair is an early wheel chair, so if you encounter a character using one of these, he or she is not ambulatory. The name relates to the spa town of Bath, England, where an invalid might go to take the waters.

Questions? Comments? Visit Monday for the letter C!

Images: badge, a-to-zchallenge.com; all others, Wikimedia